Big cats test expensive fragrance at Dudley Zoo
BIG cats at Dudley Zoo have gone crazy for an exclusive perfume which contains some very natural ingredients – the wee and poo of a fellow animal.
The luxury artisan fragrance for men and women, which retails at £128 for a 50ml bottle, contains fossilised excrement and urine from the Cape hyrax – a small, fluffy mammal from Africa.
Liz Moores, from Wiltshire-based Papillon Perfumery, sent a sample of the scent called Salome for the zoo's lynx, lions, tigers and snow leopards to try following a staff plea for perfume earlier this year.
The keepers regularly use strong scents as enrichment for the Black Country attraction's big cats – which encourages them to utilise natural behaviours to track the smells – but stocks were running low.
Assistant curator Jay Haywood, said: “We squirted the perfume on monkey fist knots in the big cat enclosures and dabbed it on climbing frames too and it really did get them excited. They really were wild for it.”
And Liz said pet owners around the country had found the scent appealed to domestic cats too.
Perfumer Liz said: “Salome is the fragrance that sends my Bengal cats completely gaga, and the fragrance that customers contact me about and ask why they are suddenly more attractive to their pets.
“The natural material that sends my cats crazy is called hyraceum, which is the fossilised excrement and urine from the little Cape hyrax.
“It sounds horrendous and although in isolation it smells heavily urinous, in a fragrance it lends a leathery, sensual affect with notes of warm skin.”
The hyrax deposits are collected from the mammal's giant toilet with no disturbance or ill effects to the creatures.
The unique Salome formula, which is cruelty free and not tested on animals, also contains orange blossom, Turkish rose, jasmine, honey, vanilla, hay, patchouli and bergamot.
